Retail marketing strategies to help you beat the seasonal sales lull

Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas and the January sales are done for another year. After the best season for retailers, revenue starts to dip as we creep further into the new year – what can you do to bounce back and keep customers returning to your store for more?

Here are some strategies to help you get back in the game and boost your sales.

Re-Target

As things settle back to everyday life, consumers may have fallen off the radar a little throughout January; but once the first pay day after Christmas has finally arrived, people are feeling more comfortable and ready to spend. This is a great time to implement some retargeting tactics. If a customer abandoned a basket, or interacted with an advertisement before payday, but didn’t convert, get back at them with an email offer on this specific product. Personalisation is key for this and according to Digital Information World, your website visitors are 70% more likely to convert when being retargeted. Better still, remarketing ads can be one of the cheapest and most successful forms of advertising.

Refresh your Products

Now that the January sales have come to an end, it’s a good time to introduce fresh, new products to your customer. Keep people excited by being innovative with what you sell – not everyone will be looking for a post-holiday bargain – some want something new and interesting to browse and eventually buy. Why not offer a promotion on these new products and give consumers the best of both worlds?

Customer Loyalty/Incentives

Chances are, throughout the Christmas period you attracted a new range of customers who aren’t likely to regularly purchase from you. This is quite common as people buy gifts for others from new stores and websites that they wouldn’t normally frequent themselves. However, you can encourage their repeat custom by offering loyalty incentives. Reward your customer for their business with a deal made just for them – give it an expiry date and tell them why they’re receiving the offer. The customer will feel appreciated and it will make your brand even more appealing for them to try themselves.

Keep Marketing to the New Year Attitude

As we make good headway into the new year, the thought of new year’s resolutions begin to dwindle. 66% of people fail in their new year’s resolutions after just one month. Help people stay on track by reminding them of their good intentions, and market the products you sell that can help them along the way – this applies to all products that keep us happy on the inside and on the outside. Typical things that tend to do well are anything that will aid organisation such as planner, diaries and journals. Products that enhance health like vitamins, supplements, skin care and weight loss are also big around this time of year. Anything that can help people feel more in control of their wellness and productivity is a good starting point.

Keep Marketing Tactics Up

Now is not the time to take your foot off the pedal, although it may feel tempting after boosting your marketing budget over the holiday period. Putting more money towards your efforts now will pay off and actually help you later in the year too. If you allocate a larger budget for the start of the year, you are gaining an advantage over your competition who have likely settled in to the ‘planning for the year ahead’ attitude.

Stay Present and be Attentive

Don’t go quiet on your customers now! Retailers have exhausted themselves throughout the holiday season, and it’s likely customers are tired of shopping too, but January is over and the consumer will still be there, ready to listen. Get active on your social media channels, send emails and make some noise about what you’re doing.

At AlphaGraphics, we specialise in helping retail businesses plan and implement end-to-end tailored marketing campaigns to improve lead generation. To find out more, visit: http://retail.agnortheast.com/